CS News

The NDSU student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (NDSU ACM) recently took second place in a national programming competition. The group participated in “MechMania” at the annual “Reflections | Projections” ACM conference held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Oct. 7-9.

MechMania is a 24-hour artificial intelligence programming competition of which the NDSU ACM has been a perennial competitor. The contest is an outstanding learn-by-doing experience that prepares competitors for the deadline pressures of the workplace.

This year, MechMania teams developed artificial intelligence players for “Thrust Wars,” a game in which players must control their fleet of “Asteroids” style space ships and score points by gathering resources, building ships, refineries and bases while battling or destroying the other team’s ships, refineries and bases.

NDSU’s PiRho team of students Zechariah Andersen, Benjamin Bechtold and Justin Anderson took second place in a photo finish to a team from UIUC.

“The MechMania competition gave us good insight on how to rapidly develop software efficiently,” said Andersen, a junior from Velva, N.D. Bechtold, a senior from Velva, N.D., described the experience as a great way to get ready for upcoming career challenges. “This competition helped me prepare for the job market,” he said. “I was able to collaborate with a team to solve problems and implement solutions.”

For Anderson, a senior from Frazee, Minn., the competition held important lessons. “Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was it built by one person. Working with Zech and Ben at MechMania taught me that teamwork is crucial for success, especially when time is a big factor,” he said.

Team members received an Amazon Kindle along with 100GB of space from Dropbox for life as prizes for placing second.

The team was sponsored, in part, by the NDSU Department of Computer Science.

For more details on NDSU ACM events, visit www.acm.ndsu.nodak.edu.

Dr. Ron Vetter

Ron Vetter gives ACM Distinguished Lecture 'Building Mobile Phone Applications'

On Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 2 p.m. Dr. Ron Vetter gave an ACM Distinguished Lecture in IACC 104. Vetter's talk described the development of interactive short message service applications, which range from simple data access applications to a novel discovery game designed for the freshman experience. Several of these applications are now being sold commercially via a novel technology transfer agreement with the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In addition, several iPhone applications also have been developed. A discussion of the relative advantages, costs and lessons learned while developing mobile phone applications was presented.

Dr. Vetter spent the day on campus, visiting faculty and students, and renewing old acquaintances. The lecture was well-attended.

The trip was sponsored by the national ACM speaker service, and the NDSU student chapter of the ACM. NDSU’s ACM invited the MIS student organization; the ECE student organization; the MSUM chapter of the ACM; as well as extending an informal invitation to the students of Concordia College. The CS department extended an open invitation to the Microsoft campus, which led to the involvement of Tim Brookins, Microsoft Distinguished Engineer, at an after-talk meeting with Vetter and a number of students, including the ACM SIG-Mobi group.

Dr. Vetter earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from NDSU and his doctorate in computer science from the University of Minnesota. He has published more than 100 journal, conference and technical papers. He has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants and contracts exceeding $5 million dollars.

Photo courtesy of Microsoft.

Fargo's Microsoft campus hosted its fifth Digi-Girlz technology camp in August hosting 130 girls between 13-17 years old, making it one of the largest field camps in the country. The attendees came from five states — North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, California and Nevada. Over 600 girls have attended the camp through the years in Fargo.

The purpose of the camp is to expose high school girls to the many careers technology can offer. Digi-Girlz offers hands-on experiences including Xbox game testing, Microsoft Studio broadcasting and product development and marketing. There are tours, workshops/panels and a keynote speaker. This year's keynote speaker was NDSU's Amy Ruley, who was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004.

Why It Matters — according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology:

• Girls comprised 46% of Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus test-takers, but only 19% of AP Computer Science test-takers.
• Women hold 56% of all professional occupations in the U.S. workforce, but only 25% of IT occupations.
• Only 11% of executives at Fortune 500 tech companies are women.
• In 2009, just 18% of undergraduate Computing and Information Sciences degrees were awarded to women; in 1985, women earned 37% of these degrees.
• Tech companies with more women on their management teams have a 34% higher return on investment; the presence of women on technical teams increases teams’ collective intelligence (problem-solving ability and creativity).

About one in five undergraduate degrees in computing and information sciences are awarded to women — a figure that's been halved since the mid-80s.

From the Fargo Forum on Saturday, August 6, 2011, regarding women in technology and what the Computer Science department is doing:

Dr. Anne Denton

Congratulations to Anne Denton on receiving the James A Meier Junior Professorship for the College of Science and Mathematics. The Meier Professorships are funded through the generosity of James A. Meier, a graduate of the College and North Dakota State University. The award winner carries the title, James A. Meier Junior Professor, plus receives $2500 for a three-year term (Fall semester 2011 through Spring semester 2014). The professor is referred to as a James A. Meier Junior Professor for life. It recognizes either an associate or assistant professor who has contributed to teaching through his or her research program.

Dr. Denton's research is largely comprised of developing data mining techniques for diverse problems ranging from bioinformatics to optical luminescence. As such her work balances the theoretical underpinnings of clustering algorithms to the applied discovery of gene and protein sequences.

As a consequence, in just a few years Anne Denton has published nearly 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, and has participated in eight funded research grants: five internal and three external, four as PI. Equally impressive, these publications and grant awards represent at least five fundamentally different and highly varied research domains.

Dr. Dean Knudson

Our congratulations go to Dean Knudson, associate professor of computer science, for receiving the Peltier Award for Teaching Innovation. Dean replaced Elvin Isgrig in 2004 as coordinator of the capstone program. Capstone projects pair students with industry and government to give them real life experiences. The students work in teams and use their technical knowledge on projects for their assigned business.

Dean estimates 250 students have participated in Capstone. He continues to take them to a higher level as he adds more companies and projects.

Brian Slator, professor and department head of computer science, says "Over the years, this course has been refined and expanded, following industry initiatives, and providing students with authentic 'learn-by-doing' experiences using modern tools and methods borrowed from the regional companies that sponsor the projects," Slator wrote. "Students do real projects for real companies, drawing on their NDSU course work and training in order to effectively learn company methods and tools."

To read the announcement, go to http://www.ndsu.edu/news/view/article/10873/. This website lists the previous Peltier award winners http://www.ndsufoundation.com/grantsawards/peltier.htm.

Team Pi Rho

From left to right: Abram Jackson,
Austen Dicken, Davin Loegering

The NDSU Computer Science Department hosted a site competition for the ACM North Central North America Regional Programming Contest on November 6th, 2010. Eight teams from NDSU, MSUM, and Concordia college competed against 217 other teams at other competition sites in the region for the opportunity to compete in the World Finals in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

NDSU Team Pi Rho, consisting of members Austen Dicken, Abram Jackson and Davin Loegering, scored 26th in the region. NDSU teams Bison (Jeremy Dobler, Nick Larson and Lawrence Anderson) and Dacodas (Cesar Ramirez and Ramesh Singh) also competed. Richard Rummelt was the coach for the three teams.

Pictures for the event are posted online, along with the Regional Standings and the Contest Problems.

June 2009
Dr. Jun Kong and Dr. Weiyi Zhang for each won a very competitive ND EPSCoR Infrastructure Improvement Program -- Collaborative Seed Pilot Program award.

According to the letter(s) of award, thirteen proposals requested $1.1 Million, while three awards totaling $207,400 were funded.

Dr. Jun Kong won a two-year award for $77,600 in collaboration with colleagues at UT-Dallas.

Dr. Weiyi Zhang won a two-year award for $82,600 in collaboration with colleagues at U of Sci & Tech, China.

May 2009
Dr. James Du was awarded the College of Science and Mathematics College Award

2009 Academic Year
It has been a year of minor growth and consolidation for the Computer Science department, with potential for future increases from a number of sources. Meanwhile it has been a 'year of assessment' as the department simultaneously underwent annual assessment, program review, and accreditation self-study, the rare trifecta.

To begin the academic year we were joined by two new faculty. Dr. Juan Li from the University of British Columbia, specializes in Distributed systems, Semantic Web technologies, Information retrieval and knowledge discovery. Dr. Wei Jin from the State University of New York – Buffalo specializes in data mining, information retrieval, machine learning and bioinformtics

In September three graduate students were awarded North Dakota Space Grant Consortium research assistantships. Later that month NDSU was visited by former astronaut Colonel Al Worden from the Apollo 15 moon mission, who met with the students and their advisors to shake hands and pose for photos.
Towards the end of the Fall semester Dr. Yan Gu announced she was leaving for a position at Auburn University starting in January.

In November, Dr. Kendall Nygard traveled to China and met with university officials at several institutions with a view towards forming a new twinning agreement. In January, Dr. Dianxiang Xu also visited China as part of a joint NDSU and Campus Development Group delegation to plan for the Fergus Falls development scheduled for 2010.

Most recently, it has been announced that Dr. Anne Denton, along with Plant Science Professor Shahryar Kianian, has been awarded a $3.1M NSF grant for wheat genome research. This is among the largest grants ever won by a Computer Science faculty member.

NDSU students take second and fourth in computer competition
The NDSU computer science department participated in the Digi-Key Corp.’s Collegiate Computing Contest, “DKC3,” on Oct. 17 in Thief River Falls, Minn. Two teams represented NDSU. Dakodas won second place and Pi Rho placed fourth.

The University of Minnesota, Morris, won first place. The Dakodas won a $150 gift certificate for each team member and $1,800 for the computer science department. Bemidji State University placed third and NDSU’s Pi Rho team came in fourth. A total of 24 teams participated.

Dakodas members include Ryan Carlsrud, a junior from Tower City, N.D.; Nathan Ehresmann, a junior from Staples, Minn.; Robert J. Foertsch, a senior from Wyndmere, N.D.; and Jeong Woo Wee, a junior from South Korea. Pi Rho’s members include Christopher Grahn, a junior from Colby, Wis.; Abram Jackson, a junior from Valley City, N.D.; Dustin Kerber, a senior from Cooperstown, N.D.; and Joel Longanecker, a senior from Waseca, Minn.

Richard Rummelt and Adam Helsene coached the teams.

Du and Nygard receive grant to secure wireless sensor networks
Xiaojiang “James” Du, assistant professor, and Kendall E. Nygard, professor, both in the computer science department, have received a three-year $358,748 grant from the Army Research Office to secure military wireless sensor networks.

In the project, “Designing Robust and Secure Heterogeneous Sensor Networks,” Du and Nygard will design effective and efficient secure protocols and algorithms for military sensor networks. A sensor network consists of a large number of tiny, smart sensor nodes that are deployed in a wide geographical area, and can provide unprecedented opportunities to sense, instrument, manage and control large environments.

In this project, Du and Nygard adopt a new and more realistic network model to study security issues in sensor networks. The model is called a Heterogeneous Sensor Network that consists of different types of sensor nodes with varying capacities. Du also received a research infrastructure grant from the Army Research Office in May 2007. This grant will be used to set up a large sensor network testbed that will be used for performance evaluations for the new project.

Wireless sensor networks have many applications in the military, such as battlefield surveillance, target tracking and security monitoring. Sensor networks are expected to have more and more applications in the military, and will become a critical component of the future digital battlefield.

As part of the project, Du and Nygard will train highly skilled undergraduate and graduate students with expertise of interest to the Department of Defense.

February 20, 2008
It was announced today that the NDSU Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Professor Award Committee has unanimously selected Dr. William "Bill" Perrizo, professor of Computer Science, as the recipient of the 2008 award.

The nomination written by the NDSU Computer Science department nomination committee and unanimously signed by the faculty of the department said, in part "Dr. Perrizo has served as a faculty member for thirty-four years, and throughout that time has consistently excelled and demonstrated leadership in teaching, research, and service."

In a letter to Perrizo, R.S. Krishnan, committee chair and associate vice president for academic affairs, wrote, "The committee was impressed with your distinguished record as an educator, and your long and exemplary service.

Dr. Donald P. Schwert, in a letter of support for the nomination wrote, "Dr. Perrizo's distinguished record of teaching and research, and of service to both NDSU and to the Fargo-Moorhead community, makes him particularly well credentialed for this award."

Dr. Perrizo will receive the recognition at the Chamber of Commerce of Fargo Moorhead Awards Luncheon, scheduled for noon Wednesday, May 21, at the Ramada Plaza Suites and Conference Center, Fargo.

January 2, 2008
Dr. Paul Juell passed away on Saturday, December 29th at Meritcare Hospital after a years-long battle with cancer. Paul's only brother died on December 26th, also of cancer.

Paul had a good Christmas with family, including his adopted son and his wife and children.  Then late on Christmas day he was hospitalized, later suffering seizures, and finally passing away comfortably.

Although we grieve the loss of a good friend and colleague, we must also celebrate his life.  The CS department organized an event at the Alumni Center to recognize Paul in the fall of 2006 while he was able to attend. The Paul Juell Scholarship Fund was set up at that time.

Paul continued coming to the office each day right up until the Christmas break this fall, which demonstrates his courage and dedication to students and those who were part of his life.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Paul Juell Scholarship Fund (c/o the NDSU Development Foundation, PO Box 5144, Fargo, ND 58105).

Mon, 5 Nov 2007
The department programming competition teams ‘swept’ the eighth annual Digi-Key Collegiate Computing Competition (DKC³) on Friday, October 19. We were represented by two teams of four students each and both won by a wide margin. This is the first time in the history of the DKC³ that any university has won both first and second place. The department congratulates the students, listed below, and their coach, Richard Rummelt.

The competition included Bemidji State University, St. Cloud State University, University of Minnesota - Duluth, University of Minnesota - Morris, University of North Dakota, Concordia College, and Mayville State University as well as NDSU.

Team ‘Pi Rho’ (First Place) won $200 for each team member, $3000 for the Computer Science Department, and a huge brass trophy.
    Adam Helsene
    Dustin Kerber
    Eric Odegaard
    Evan Braaten

Team ‘Dacodas’ (Second Place) won $150 for each team member and $1800 for the Computer Science Department.
    Aaron Feickert
    Abram Jackson
    Amar Nishant Singh
    Robert Foertsch

The competition was held in Thief River Falls, MN at the Digi-Key corporate headquarters. Representatives of the Digi-Key corporation's Information Technology department then visited NDSU on Friday, November 2 where they presented the trophy / prize money as well as recruited for two permanent positions and student internships.

May 1, 2007
Brian M. Slator, a long time Professor within the Department, has been selected as the first Department Head.  His service will commence on July 1, 2007.  Prior to that date, the Department was directed by a Department Chair.  Unlike Chairs, Heads serve an indefinite term.

The Department has had a very successful, productive two years (2005, 2006) by almost any measure.  When one considers that the Department spent these two years with at least two (often three) vacant positions, the results are even more impressive.

Research
The eleven tenure-track faculty who submitted brag sheets had a total of 136 fully refereed publications during 2005-06.  Particularly gratifying is the split between the six tenured faculty who had 76 refereed publications and the five non-tenured faculty who had 60 refereed publications.  Ten distinct faculty published during 2005-06. The faculty submitted 88 research proposals during these two years (some are counted more than once since more than one Department faculty member participated).  Only 12 proposals were funded, but nine distinct faculty submitted proposals during this two year period.

Service
The Department continues to be very active in service to the College, University, and profession.  Four faculty serve on a total of five University Committees.  Nine faculty served on College Committees for a total of seventeen committees.  Two faculty serve as associate editors of journals.  Six faculty serve as reviewers of grant proposals and/or publications.

Teaching
In 2005-06, the Department taught 19.25 FTE.  In 2006-07, we are should exceed that FTE production.  The Department had the largest graduate program in the University in both years.

In the past two years, forty-three bachelor's level students, four certificate level students, forty-eight M.S. level students, and eight Ph.D. level students were graduated.  At the graduate level, seven faculty advised at least one of these students.

The Department continues to be a leader in distance education.  We offer a Graduate Certificate in Software Engineering entirely through distanced education.  While we have not advertised the program, its numbers slowly are increasing.